The National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons, NAPTIP, Makurdi Zonal Command, has rescued a 12 year old girl given out to a 50 year old man in marriage in Benue state.
The girl, (names withheld) was rescued Wednesday morning after a concerned citizen reported the case to the agency.
The NAPTIP Commander in the Zone, Mrs Gloria Bai, disclosed this in Makurdi, said though the girls age is yet to be verified, the girl was deceived by her family into marrying the 50 year old man.
It was gathered that while the girl was being taken to the man’s house, she thought she was being taken to town for schooling only to discover later that she has been married off to him as his 3rd wife.
Speaking to journalists, Mrs Bai said preliminary investigation revealed that she has been in the forced marriage for about three months and the man has been abusing her.
She stated that while they are making frantic efforts to get the man, the girl had been rescued and currently in protective custody with NAPTIP.
“Yes we have rescued her. We got this report from a concerned citizen and contrary to the media report that NAPTIP was ‘slow and unenthusiastic’ we swiftly went into action to search for the address where the girl was and when we got the address, we planned to go first thing in the morning so that we get both the man and the victim and by 6am, we were there.
“Unfortunately, the raid came in and we were able to rescue the girl but the man had gone out . We are on it and our officers are ready on surveillance to get the man as soon as he is seen.”
Mrs Bai said the agency will carry out an in-depth investigation to know what the allegation is and how the girl came to be in his house.
According to her, “The girl will be taken to the hospital for medical examination and will also undergo proper counseling. We will see how she came to be in house and if he has contravened the law, we would charge him to court.”